Today Could Be A Defining Moment For New Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras

BERLIN (AP) — The new Greek prime minister's hopes of winning
more time from creditors to implement reforms and spending cuts
face a tough test as he travels to a deeply skeptical Germany on
Friday to meet German Chancellor Angela
Merkel.

Prime Minister Antonis Samaras visits the chancellery a day after
Merkel and French President Francois Hollande — the leaders of
the 17-nation eurozone's two biggest economic powers — pressed
Greece to keep pushing through painful reforms and made no
mention of his hopes for more leeway.

In a charm offensive in German and French media this week,
Samaras has been arguing that his nation should have more time
beyond the mid-2014 deadline to complete reforms that are a
condition of it continuing to receive bailout loans. Without the
help, Greece would be forced into a chaotic default on its debts
and could be forced out of the eurozone.

Germany's finance minister has argued that giving Greece more
time wouldn't solve the country's problems, and the parliamentary
caucus leader of Merkel's conservative bloc poured more cold
water on the idea Friday.

A German official speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss
the informal Merkel-Hollande talks said the leaders agreed that
credibility is key to overcoming the crisis and they would
underline that in meetings with Samaras.

Ahead of the Berlin talks, the Greek financial newspaper
Naftemporiki said Samaras would seek to "restore our country's
credibility" by arguing that Greece "has already made important
steps towards fiscal stability and pushing through structural
reforms."

The Athens newspaper Kathimerini said Samaras will succeed only
if he maintains the support of his coalition partners and the
Greek voters "and if our foreign partners agree to give Greece
some breathing space."

But Athens has faltered in the speed and effectiveness of
implementing the reforms, irritating its creditors, notably
Germany, which is the single largest contributor to its €240
billion ($300 billion) bailout packages. Weeks of political
wrangling in Greece that ultimately brought a coalition
government under Samaras to power didn't help.

Greece's continued access to the bailout packages hinges on a
favorable report next month from the so-called "troika" of the
country's debt inspectors — the European Union,
European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund. If
Greece is found to have failed on key economic reforms that are
conditions of the bailout loan, vital funds could be halted.

"For me, it's important that we all stand by our commitments, and
in particular await the (publication of) the troika report, to
then see what the result is," Merkel said at the beginning of her
meeting with Hollande. "But I will encourage Greece to follow the
path of reform, which demands a lot of the Greek people."

Hollande stressed: "I want Greece to remain in the eurozone.
That's my wish. That's our wish." But he added that "of course
Greece must make the necessary efforts for this to happen."

Samaras meets Hollande in Paris on Saturday following his visit
to Berlin.

German officials question Samaras' assertion that giving Greece
more time doesn't have to mean giving it more money. And Merkel
would have to get approval for any extra funding in Parliament,
where lawmakers in her center-right coalition have no appetite
for another Greek rescue program.

"Nowhere is the saying that time is money so true as in this
case," Volker Kauder, the parliamentary leader of Merkel's
conservatives, told ZDF television. "And we cannot make more
money available."

He said he was "very skeptical" about giving Greece more time.
While he stressed that Europe must wait for the troika's report,
he said: "my position is that neither the time nor the position
in substance can be renegotiated; Greece must now fulfill its
duties."

Some German politicians — though not Merkel or her finance
minister — have talked openly in recent weeks about the
possibility of Greece leaving the euro, and the vice chancellor,
Economy Minister Philipp Roesler, has said that the idea of a
Greek exit has "lost its horror."

Asked whether the euro would fail if Greece leaves, Kauder
replied that rescue funds are in place to help prevent contagion
of other countries, and pointed to good progress in bailed-out
Portugal and Ireland — so "I would say that this wouldn't be a
problem for the euro."